"Father, father!" shouted Pen in a few moments. "You've got him!" There was a sort of electric shock went through the entire picnic; but the deacon jerked out a very good-looking fish with an unthankful look on his face.
"Nothing but a perch. He's a pound and a quarter, though.—Here, Mrs. Stebbins, take that other line, and see what you can do."
Mrs. Stebbins had talked quite industriously all the way, and even after they got upon the ice; but she stopped short the moment she took hold of that line. She had hardly dropped it in, before Porter Hudson exclaimed,—
"Corry, Corry!"
"Pull, Port! Pull! You've got a big one."
"So have I," screamed Mrs. Stebbins. "Deacon!—Vosh! It's awful! Come help me!"
"Pen," said Susie, "could it pull her through the hole?"
"Why, Susie!"
Pen's eyes and mouth were wide open; for both her cousin and Mrs. Stebbins were leaning back, and it seemed as if something down below were jerking at them.
"Wind it round your wrist, Port," said Corry. "Hang on!"